Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Wyoming

Wyoming, by road

Wyoming is a place where i-80 crosses the southern tier through Cheyenne and Laramie, and winter wind and snow can close it. Pallets here follow I-80, I-25 and I-90, and the distance they travel empty is the cost a nestable cuts.

The counties with the most warehousing jobs are Laramie (1,747) and Albany (42), which is 90.6 percent of the state's 1,974. It shares a land border with Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and Idaho.

Warehousing in numbers

Wyoming reports no refrigerated warehouse capacity separately in the USDA table we used, so the cold question depends on the individual customer.

Reading the numbers

• Laramie County has 1,747 warehousing jobs, 88.5 percent of Wyoming's 1,974, the most in the state.
• Albany County has 42 warehousing jobs, 2.1 percent of Wyoming's 1,974, 1,705 fewer than Laramie County.
• Chemical manufacturing employs 1,811 people in Wyoming, 0.92 for every warehousing job.
• Warehousing and storage employs 1,974 people in Wyoming, 1.00 for every warehousing job.
• Wyoming holds 0.1 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 1000, spread over 23 establishments averaging 86 jobs each.
• Montana has 428 warehousing jobs, 0.22 times the 1,974 in Wyoming.
• South Dakota has 3,269 warehousing jobs, 1.66 times the 1,974 in Wyoming.
• Nebraska has 8,246 warehousing jobs, 4.18 times the 1,974 in Wyoming.
• Colorado has 24,541 warehousing jobs, 12.43 times the 1,974 in Wyoming.

Who ships pallets here

In Wyoming, chemical manufacturing employs 1,811. Chemical shippers ask about footprint first because the container decides it, then about static load and fire listing for the storage area. It tends to lean on stackable heavy-duty pallets sized to the drum or bag, usually in 45 x 45 in (CP9) or 48 x 48 in for drums, and to ask about the static load with the container on it, and any fire listing.

Chemical manufacturing is the trade where Wyoming is most concentrated, at 1.3 times the national share of employment. A buyer in that trade will tend to ask the questions in the last column first.

The empty return

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 23 warehouse establishments in Wyoming sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 18,400 pallets. The table counts the 53 ft trailers that takes at three makers' published nestable figures, beside the 540 per trailer of a rackable.

Next door

Words on this page

Reefer

A refrigerated trailer or container.

ISPM 15

An international standard on treating and marking wood packaging material. Plastic is outside it.

Location quotient

A place's share of employment in a trade divided by the national share. Above 1 means the trade is more concentrated there than average.

2-way entry

A pallet that can be lifted from only two opposite sides.

ZIP Code Business Patterns

A Census Bureau series that counts establishments by ZIP code and industry.

Dunnage

Loose material used to support or secure cargo inside a trailer or container.

Creep

Slow, permanent bending of plastic under a steady load. A pallet can hold a load for an hour and bow under it after a month.

Slip sheet

A thin sheet of plastic or fibreboard used under a load in place of a pallet, handled by a push-pull attachment.

QCEW

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, a Bureau of Labor Statistics count of jobs and establishments taken from unemployment insurance records.